Joining the Demon System Game

At the moment that Terry received the download, he immediately went silent, withdrawing into his own world. As loud as the ghouls within Adam were howling, Terry didn't even flinch.

Blake knew exactly what Terry was doing. His vacant eyes were moving about, checking and double-checking the stats, the power, the percentages. It wasn't as if Blake hadn't done it himself.

"Woah! This is a super cool game!" Terry hissed with excitement.

"It's not a game, dude." Blake responded.

"Shut up man." Terry snarled back. "I've played enough video games to know if something is a game or not. This is nothing more complex than just a video game."

"This is real, Terry. If you're not careful, you forfeit your soul forever."

"You are an unbelievable pansy Blake. Can't you see the game stats? How is that real?"

Terry's eyes gleamed with excitement.

"We've suddenly found ourselves inside a video game! I'm going to find a way to beat this system."

Blake sighed. Terry had always been such an idiot, even in life.

It didn't take long before Terry realized something important.

"Fuck. Everything is at zero. How the hell am I supposed to play this Demon Systems game if I have nothing in my stats?" Terry grumbled

He turned to Blake.

"How did you get energy to start playing?"

"Someone gifted me a small starter amount." Blake muttered hoping he wouldn't ask more questions. Terry was starting to scare him.

"Who?"

Blake sighed and pointed towards the bell.

"The woman who is possessing Adam at this moment."

Terry gave him a disgusted look.

"You took energy from the ho who killed you? Are you out of your Goddamned mind?"

"I didn't TAKE anything, Terry. She gifted it to me out of her own kindness."

Terry threw him a disgusted look.

"Gift my ass. She killed you and then threw you a bone and you're supposed to be grateful? Hell to the No! That bitch killed me too!"

He stood up.

"As soon as I figure out this Demon System, I'm going to go find her and extract my revenge. That Marvin bastard too. He's gonna get it just as horribly as that Maysie ho."

His eyes darting away into the distance.

"Aight. I'm outta here."

"Where are you going?" Blake called out.

"I don't have time to sit here and watch Adam get bonked in the brains by that monk banging on a bell. I gotta go find some energy and get this game started!"

"Terry, stick with us. You go flying off on your own, you're going to end up as ghoul food or worse, man."

Terry raised two fingers in the air and turned away, his crushed skull with its cavernous hole slowly disappearing from sight.

Luis shook his head.

"He ain't going to last long."

Blake turned to him. His eyes glittered with anger.

"Why did you give him the Demon System?"

"What? Are you jealous that you're not the only one who's special and gets the Demon System installed in your mind?"

"That's not it. Terry's an idiot! He's going to get into serious trouble!"

"He's a full-grown man, Blake. He's going to do what he wants to do. We can only save those who want to be saved."

Blake nodded and turned back to Adam's seated form under the bell. For Adam's sake, for Jazzie's sake, and for Maysie's sake, he hoped the monks would be able to help them all.

It was at that moment that the monks and nuns were able to expel Maysie out of Adam's body.

Blake watched with fascinated horror as the soundless wailing face of Maysie Woods undulated upward into the sky, spewing forth a noxious cloud of deep purple smoke and dissipated into the evening sky.

At the same moment, Adam howled a horrible guttural sound of pain and horror. It was so terrible that Blake winced and tried to shut his ears.

Thankfully, Adam slumped into a faint and the shrieking stopped.

"Where did Maysie go?" Blake asked.

"Nowhere. She's stuck in this realm, remember?"

Luis pointed to the nun who had recaptured Maysie and cast her soul into a statue of a dancing nymph by the water lily pond.

"And there she will stay until it's time for her to leave."

☯︎☯︎☯︎

There was a knock on the door.

"Excuse me for interrupting, Anh Hai but it seems there's been some trouble." A muffled voice called out from behind the shut door.

"Come in," Anh Hai called out. It was so hard to find good help these days.

The door opened in on a shrunken man in his early fifties. His hair was black on top and white on the sides and his twiggy body was draped in the loose folds of a soft gray silk tunic.

"Ben. What's going on?"

"Anh Hai. The ghoul Marvin needs help."

"I figured he might. How is Maysie?"

"She's gone."

With a heavy sigh, Anh Hai got up and made his way to the door.

"I have some work to do. Lock the door on your way out."

He left the room and made his way through the house and out the door until he reached the temple with the curled green roof.

Upon entry into the main chamber, Anh Hai went straight to the new altar with its new tiger occupant and a brand new painting of the naked Asian woman.

He went over to the painting and stood there, absorbing into his senses the myriad delicate sea-shell skin tones of the beautiful female subject and sighed.

Maybe this new ghoul would be a better one than the previous ghoul that had gotten away.

He pushed a button concealed on the side frame. The picture of the girl slid down, exposing the alcove where a brand new replacement for the ceramic ginger jar was tucked away. It was a brass genie lamp.

He reached into the alcove and muttered a few incantations as he withdrew the lamp. Then he opened the lid.

Nothing visible happened, but Anh Hai didn't need to show theatrics to command a legion of ghouls.

"Ray Street, get out here now." Anh Hai commanded.